


Works Cited

by JennaCupcakes



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, au in which the berlin airport is completed on time, scientists bickering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-14
Updated: 2015-09-14
Packaged: 2018-04-20 20:23:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4801022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JennaCupcakes/pseuds/JennaCupcakes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Newt thinks that, even in the middle of an alien invasion of his planet, he deserves a holiday. Hermann doesn't think so.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Works Cited

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nakymatonlapsi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nakymatonlapsi/gifts).



> This work was inspired by the Friedrich versus Finer debate on accountability versus responsibility in public administration, and their hilarious papers which basically read like very entertaining passive aggressive tumblr posts. 
> 
> Note: I'm neither a biologist nor a mathematician, so please excuse my rather poor attempts at Kaiju science. 
> 
> This is set somewhere after Newt's and Hermann's first meeting and before they are assigned to work together as the last scientists of the Jaeger Program.

Newt was staring at his computer screen somewhat incredulously, and too mesmerized to notice that he was letting go of his coffee pot and that the hot liquid was now beginning to drip down on the floor.

Okay, backtrack, there was a beginning to this and it was not the moment when Newt first logged onto his computer that morning.

He’d been out late yesterday night with a couple of old friends from his university days who’d dragged him to their favourite Berlin bar (the place had been crawling with hipsters) where they’d stayed until early in the morning. When Newt had gotten home, he’d only managed to remove his shoes and glasses before crashing on his bed, and that was where his friend’s flatmate found him not three hours later. 

It was a shame, really, to be woken up so early when he was on somewhat of a holiday, the first one since receiving his first doctorate at MIT, actually. So it wasn’t really a holiday, okay, he was here to compare notes with some Kaiju scientists in Berlin, but there were friends here he hadn’t seen in ages, new bars that had opened and a couple of his favourite second-hand-stores that had stacked up on comics and old computer games. It was fair to say that not a lot of note-comparing had happened so far.

“Hey,“ the guy said - Newt thought his name was something like Tom or Tim, which was bad enough in itself, but then he also had to _look_ like a Tom or Tim. Newt pitied him a little bit.

“Nick called, he said you might want to check your emails. Something about a paper?“

Newt, still groggy from last night and half-blind without his glasses, rubbed his eyes. The world didn’t un-blur, but at least it made him feel slightly more awake. 

“A paper?“

He blamed it on the lack of sleep that the first thing that came to his mind was toilet paper, and the second was paper airplanes. Then it dawned on him.

“Ooooh no.“

“What?“

Newt reached blindly for his glasses, hoping drunk him had had enough sense to put them on the nightstand of his friend’s bed, and got lucky. They were a bit dirty, but even with dirty glasses he saw better than without them. 

“My paper about Kaiju behavior got approved for publishing just before I left for Berlin last week,“ he said, “I don’t know, maybe something went wrong with the journal, damn it-“ He paused to grab his computer, absent-mindedly wondering where his cell phone went. “I guess when they couldn’t get a hold of me they called the university…“

His computer started agonizingly slowly, and Newt hurled a couple of German curses at it. 

Tom or Tim nodded solemnly. “I didn’t know you…“ He made a vague gesture with his hands. “You were a doctor. How old are you?“

“Second youngest to be ever admitted to MIT,“ Newt said, and it wasn’t a brag this time because his computer was finally showing signs of life, and he was too distracted. Took the damn thing long enough.

Tom or Tim didn’t seem to know what to say in reply to that. “Oh. Well.“

He shook his head. “Do you want coffee?“

“That would be lovely.“ Newts fingers were drumming nervously on the keyboard already anyway, but a bit of caffeine seemed the ideal thing to kickstart his sleep-deprived brain and calm his nerves. 

Tom or Tim got up, leaving Newt to go looking for his phone while the computer was starting. He found the phone under the pillow, the alarm put to silent and three missed calls from Nick displayed on screen. He put the sound back on and cursed again.

When Tom or Tim returned with the coffee, Newt was just opening the page of his university email account. Wrapping one hand around the cup, Newt typed in his password with the other. The wifi was really slow. 

Finally, the page loaded. At the top of his inbox was an email from Nick ( _no subject_ ) which just contained a link to a journal article. Newt was beginning to feel confused, but he clicked on the link anyway. The article that loaded was definitely not Newt’s.

It took him a moment, but really, he was tired and his brain wasn’t working as it should. That’s why he only read the author’s name after staring at the title for a few seconds: _A Study In Kaiju Behavioral Analysis - The Biologist’s Pipe Dream_. And below that: _A Mathematician’s View by Hermann Gottlieb_.

“Oh no, he didn’t.“

That was how Newt came to sit on the top floor of a Berlin apartment block, dripping coffee on the floor and staring at his computer screen. His hand and jaw had gone slack in shock, but he willed his fingers to scroll down the page to scan the abstract. 

“Oh no, _he didn’t_.“

It began innocently enough - _the study of Kaiju behavior is an integral part in the fight to understand the challenge we, not only as a people, but as scientists face to understand these beings_ \- and then it all went downhill.

_The mistake that certain biologists make in their haste to ascribe certain patterns of behavior is one of applying terrestrial modes of behavior to beings entirely alien to our world and its conditions. Some scientists, in fact, let themselves get carried away by their theory so far that they begin to make the facts suit their theory and not the other way around, as should be the way of science. This essay will demonstrate with mathematical precision what biology has failed to predict, and introduce a new way of foreseeing and hopefully preventing Kaiju attacks_.

“ _Arschloch_ ,“ Newt muttered, “An absolute bastard and a complete _Arschloch_.“

He hadn’t even realized that Tom or Tim was still standing there until he cleared his throat. “What’s the matter?“

“He tore it to shreds.“ 

Newt was still scrolling down the article as he spoke, picking out bits and pieces to read before scrolling further.

“He took my baby and completely tore it to shreds.“

“Who did?“

Newt sighed, and willed himself to close the laptop. It’d only get him more agitated, and now he didn’t even have coffee to calm himself anymore. He looked down at the mess and sighed.

“I’ll clean that up in a minute, okay?“ He took off his glasses to rub his eyes again. “I published an article on Kaiju behavior. I was extrapolating from their physiology, I have some solid theories that I want to explore further with the data from the people here in Berlin but…“

He didn’t even know where to begin to explain Hermann Gottlieb.

“There’s this… colleague of mine who’s a mathematician, and he somehow got a response to my paper published in less than a week where he questions everything I say. Now I might never get a second article about Kaiju behavior published, and all because that _Arschloch_ thinks his maths are more accurate at predicting their moves than my biology!“

“Are they?“ Tom or Tim asked.

“Are they what?“

Newts thoughts were still occupied with tidbits from the article that had stuck in his mind. 

_‚Consequently,‘ continues Doctor Geiszler, ‚It cannot be herd behavior that drives these Kaiju through a breach that to them must be as alien as to us. What we have seen so far displays a race of lone warriors searching their luck elsewhere than their homeworld.‘ But would the Kaiju not make the same observation about us, seeing as we oppose them always as just a team of Jaeger pilots fighting as one person in a gigantic robot? The foundation of his argument is, at best, shaky._

“Are they more accurate at predicting Kaiju movements?“

Newt scoffed. “No way. He’s all numbers, you know? Grey theory. I think he’s a bit afraid to get his hands dirty.“

He’d met Gottlieb only once in his life, and it hadn’t gone over so well, despite their previous correspondence indicating the opposite. Where Newt was tattooed and relaxed, Gottlieb was all prim and proper, with a bit of a Bavarian accent he couldn’t quite shake, even when he switched into English. Newt had imagined him quite differently - but that might have been hero worship talking, and anyway, he knew better now.

“I should…“ Newt shook his head. The first thought that had come to his mind was ridiculous: he would _not_ email Hermann Gottlieb and grant him the satisfaction of knowing that he’d all but ruined Newt’s precious Berlin holiday. For all Newt knew, Gottlieb had probably timed it too - but no, it was just the timing of Newt’s own article that had earned him this response. He could feel the beginnings of a headache creeping up on him. 

“I should take a shower.“

Newt didn’t have to smell his clothes to know he still smelled like an ashtray from yesterday night. Tom or Tim nodded, and then left him alone to sort through his clothes and find something clean that he could wear to the lab.

He showered cold to clear his mind, but all it did was make him shiver, and by the time he got out of the shower his hands shook so badly that he almost got his boxer-shorts stuck in the zipper of his pants. His only thought now was to get to the lab as fast as possible, to see if he could at least salvage some of his theories with the data from their experiments. And if not, well, maybe Nick would be up for a _Frühschoppen_. That might help him forget, at least.

Tom or Tim wasn’t there anymore when Newt finally got out of the bathroom. Newt stuffed some things into his backpack, cleaned up the coffee in the bedroom and then carried Nicks bike down three flights of stairs so he could get to campus without having to pay the ridiculous prices of public transport in this city. When he got out on the street, his phone rang. Thinking it was probably Nick trying to reach him again, he picked up.

“Newton Geiszler?“

“Good afternoon!“

The voice on the other end was distorted by static - after all, Newt knew, it was spanning an ocean right now - but still the owner was unmistakeable. 

“It’s morning, here, actually, Doctor Gottlieb,“ Newt said cooly. Really, of all the things that had gone through his head, this was the nicest he could manage.

“How is Berlin?“ Gottlieb asked. Newt cursed his hypocritical ass.

“Same old,“ he said, “How does it feel to be a backstabbing traitor to your colleagues?“

Gottlieb didn’t even falter. “Scientific progress! You know how it is - bad theories have to go, new theories take their place.“

“Oh, I’ll give you scientific progress!“ Newt held on to the bike with one hand to keep himself from giving in to the urge to make some rude gestures. Gottlieb wouldn’t be able to see them anyway. “Biology isn’t even your field of expertise!“

“And you should have stuck to tissue replication instead of behavioral science!“

“Are you seriously spending hundreds of dollars on a phone call just to tell me how wrong I am?“ 

A passing woman with a baby on her arm cast Newt a strange glance. He realized he probably did look a bit weird, with his arms covered in Kaiju tattoos and arguing loudly over the phone in a public space. Not very German at all.

“I…“ Gottlieb hesitated for a moment. “Well, that article was a mess. But no.“

He took a breath, and Newt was stunned by how clearly he could hear it over the phone. Somehow it was even weirder than meeting in person, because the telephone removed all other distractions and just focussed Newt on what Gottlieb said… which, granted, sounded weird when he put it like that. Newt forced the thought aside.

“There’s been another attack just off the American coast,“ Gottlieb said.

Now it was Newt’s turn to take a sharp breath. He hadn’t even checked the news this morning, and apparently, Nicks flatmate hadn’t, either.

“How… how many victims?“

“The Kaiju got to the coast, but luckily the holiday town it hit had been evacuated. I was just… calling to let you know they’ve salvaged some parts, and if you want to play around with them, well, now’s your best chance. Before they _disappear_ one way or the other.“

Newt was too stunned to say anything for a moment. Half of his mind was already made up to take the next flight back to the US, but there was something else bothering him.

“You called me just to…“

Just to what? To do Newt a favor? He didn’t know what to think about that.

Nevertheless, he swallowed his pride. “Thank you,“ he said, “I’ll make some calls to see if they can save me some.“

Gottlieb cleared his throat. “Yes, well, in that case… I should be off. It’s almost time for dinner here.“

“Yeah.“ 

Newt’s thoughts were still racing. Kaiju science, while of course being of vital importance to the fate of the world, was also a highly competitive field. To get one’s hands on relatively fresh Kaiju parts, one had to be fast and really lucky. Newt tried to reason with himself that it was just because Gottlieb couldn’t use the parts himself and felt a bit bad after tearing Newt’s article to shreds like that. There was nothing he should read into this gesture.

“Well, then. I’m looking forward to your next article,“ Gottlieb said.

Whatever feelings of gratitude Newt had held for a minute evaporated. “Yeah, you wish, you complete-“

But Gottlieb had already hung up. Newt stared at his phone for a second longer, then opened the flight app to see which planes were leaving from Berlin airport in the next hours. He couldn’t shake the silly grin of his face though, no matter how hard he tried. 

**Author's Note:**

> Explanations for the German:
> 
> Arschloch - asshole  
> Frühschoppen - drinking a glass of apple cider early in the morning, sometimes also to counter a hangover


End file.
